


Let it snow

by LostinFic



Category: Broadchurch, Secret Diary of a Call Girl (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Crossover, F/M, Fluff, Huddling For Warmth, Snowed In, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 01:11:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9099868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostinFic/pseuds/LostinFic
Summary: Alec has a big exam coming up, he also has a crush, two things that don’t go well together, especially during a snowstorm.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Trope: huddling for warmth
> 
> Beta: fadewithfury

Hannah walked out of the bedroom and dragged her feet across the worn-out wooden floor to the tiny kitchen.

“Good morning, sunshine,” she said, voice laced with sleep.

Alec looked up from his heavy textbook. “Hey.”

She walked behind his chair and ruffled his short hair playfully. He grunted, but she only laughed— a laugh stifled by yawning. She stretched her arms above her head, thus rising her t-shirt and revealing a strip of skin. Alec caught himself staring at the faint dimples in her lower back. He quickly averted his eyes and buried his nose in his book.

Hannah helped herself to a cup of the coffee he’d just made and joined him at the kitchen table. After the first sip, she hummed in satisfaction. She ran a hand through her hair, and golden confetti from the previous night fell to her shoulders.

It was a grey morning outside, the snow on rooftops blended into the sky. Faint sunlight shone through icicles like through a prism, creating drops of rainbow on the pages on his book.

“How long have you been up?” she asked.

“Six.”

“Urgh, why? It’s Sunday.”

“To review.”

“Oh, right, you got that big exam coming up, don’t you?”

“Tomorrow.”

One of many big exams. In three months he would be done with his police training. But those three months were the hardest. He was determined to graduate at the top of his class. That way he would get to choose his place of work and might ascend to a detective position faster.

“Want me to help you study?” she offered.

“How?”

She took the textbook out of his hands. “I’ll make up some questions. And every time you get an answer right, I’ll take off a piece of clothing. How does that sound?”

Alec gulped.

“Just kidding. Can you imagine? I’m only wearing like two things.”

Great, how was he supposed to focus knowing she wore nothing under her shorts and t-shirt?

Her first question brought him back to reality. She’d asked something easy, yet he blabbered on.

“You know this, I’m sure.” She squeezed his hand.

 _Not helping_. He crossed his arms and cleared his throat.

She repeated the question: “While on patrol you come across a man with an obvious gunshot wound. The man says that he shot himself while cleaning his gun. What should you do?”

“Ok, I should send him to hospital… with a police escort?”

“Excellent!”

She smiled brightly, and that was more motivation to get the answer right than a good grade at his exam.

They continued like this for almost an hour. They shared an orange and made up silly mnemonic tricks. He had a particularly hard time remembering all the regulation regarding evidence handling.

“Fuck, I should know this!” He slapped the table.

“Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself. Maybe you need a break, yeah? I do.”

He slouched in his chair and ran a hand along his stubbly cheek.  “You must’ve been good in school,” he commented.

“Yeah, not bad. Could’ve been better, but I was too lazy. Anyway, I’m probably making more money at the bar than I would with a job in my field.”

“Thanks, by the way.”

“No problem… I really needed a refresher on what’s illegal, anyway.”

She pulled a face as though she might be in trouble. Alec laughed and relaxed further.

Hannah put her feet up on his chair. Her smooth legs were only a few inches away from his touch. Without thinking, he put his hand around her ankle. He stilled and held his breath, awaiting her reaction and fighting the urge to stroke her skin with his thumb. She looked at his hand on her, but didn’t budge. Slowly, she closed his book and held it to her chest, resting her chin atop of it.

“Alec, can I ask you a personal question?”

“Aye.”

“I’ve been wondering, how come you’re still in school? You’re, what, thirty?”

“Twenty-eight... had to quit school for a while.”

“What happened?”

Alec’s eyes slid away, jaw clenched. He didn’t like talking about it, but she tilted her head with a sympathetic look in her eyes, and that decided it for him.

“My mum, she—“

Alec’s flatmate came out of his room at that moment and farted. Alec withdrew his hand from Hannah’s ankle as fast as she dropped her feet.

“Simon, you’re disgusting,” Hannah said, yet she let him kiss her.

Really, that’s what she found attractive?

“Why d’you keep getting up before me, babe? I had a nice surprise for you this morning,” Simon whispered, thrusting his pelvis with a roguish laugh.

“Stop humping the furniture,” Alec said.

They exchanged a glare.

“Well, too bad,” Hannah said. “I had to help Alec study.”

“Oh, you were helping _Alec,_ were you? Why d’you bother with him anyway?”

Hannah shrugged and looked through the chapter for other questions to ask. Simon pulled a mug out of the cupboard and reached for the coffee pot. Alec stopped him.

“That’s for me.”

“All right, _Alec._ ”

“Stop it.”

The only thing Simon and he had in common was a grandmother. His cousin being a night club DJ, their lifestyles couldn’t be more different. But he always paid his share of the bills on time and did his part of the house chores, which was more than could be said about most flatmates. Alec hadn’t decided yet if Simon’s girlfriend was a point in his favour or not. Things tended to be more tensed between them when Hannah was there. For one thing, he could hear them have sex. At least, she visited from London only once every other weekend. And when she did, Alec had some time alone with her before Simon woke up.

She’d annoyed him at first, he’d thought her harebrained (she was dating Simon after all). Until she admitted it’s his grumpiness that made her sputter out stupid things. And he realized there was no ill-will to her teasing, just a desire to make him crack a smile. It had taken some time, but they enjoyed each other’s company now. Perhaps a little too much.

Hannah gave him back his textbook and joined Simon at the oven to cook breakfast. Alec returned to his studies, trying to tune out their whispers and giggles. Did Simon really have to keep his hands on her bum while she scrambled the eggs?

He gave up after a while. He’d have to get out of the flat if he wanted to get anything done. As he stood up to leave, Simon asked: “D’you mind if Hannah stays while I’m gone? I’ve got a gig in Dundee, but her train’s later this afternoon.”

“I don’t care.”

Alec gathered his books and went to his bedroom. He plopped down on his bed with a sigh. As soon as he was done with training, he’d get a job in another city and be rid of Simon, and of whatever sort of infatuation Alec had with Hannah.

 

Alec remained in his room even after hearing Simon leave. He could hear Hannah making tea and zapping through channels only to give up and turn off the TV entirely. After a moment of silence, he heard her footsteps. His heart sped up: she was coming his way. She hesitated, he could see her shadow under the door. At last, she knocked, and he startled even if he’d expected it. He shoved dirty socks under the bed and opened the door.

“What?”

“I’m bored.” She leaned her head against the doorframe.

“I’m not your bloody court jester.”

She laughed, and he was doomed. She walked in and sat on his bed, seemingly at ease in his room. She’d never been in before. At a loss for what to do, Alec shuffled on his feet. At least, she’d changed out of her pyjamas.

“Oh, I’m reading it too,” she said, holding up his copy of _High Fidelity_. “Ok, so, your top five breakups?”

“Wha’?”

“That’s how the novel starts, isn’t it? Let’s hear yours, then.”

She settled on the bed more comfortably, putting a pillow behind her back.

“Dunno,” he said.

“All right, I’ll go first. Let’s see…” She pressed her lips to her steeple fingers. “Oh, I know! Lucas Gray. He said he wanted to date someone his own age. I was twelve. He was thirteen.”

She patted the space next to her, and he sat down, careful to keep some space between them.

She told him about the bad boy who cheated on her (“you never said we were exclusive”). The posh one who sent her a bullet point list of everything he thought was wrong with her (“on letter paper with his family’s crest at the top”). The one who wouldn’t leave and cried for three hours straight. And the teacher who made her think she was special.

She recounted it all with a remarkable lightness. Turning heartbreak into good humor.

“And you keep dating?” Alec asked.

She snorted and fiddled with the bottom of her vest top. “I’m a bit stupid.”

“You’re not.”

“Yeah, I am. I’m stupid with boys.”

“I don’t think so.”

Her wide, hopeful eyes made him wish he was more eloquent. Then he would be able to tell her how brave she was. Brave to keep on letting people in despite getting her heart broken time and time again. Instead, he patted her knee awkwardly, but she put her hand over his to keep it there. He stared, heart aflutter, at their skin touching, at her smaller fingers with chipped nail polish and the tiny yellowish bruise under her thumb. And he became aware of their shoulders brushing too, of the rhythm of her breath, and of how far gone he was.

_Shit._

She scooted closer to him. “You’re nice to me.”

“… I suppose.”

“Most blokes who are nice want something from me.”

Was it a warning or an offer?

She smiled, twirling strawberry blond hair around her finger. He forgot himself for a moment, getting lost in the shifting colour of her eyes, greens and brown and gold. She bit her lower lip and bumped his shoulder.

“Simon, he’s nice to you too,” he pointed out.

She lost her smile and scooted away. There was a gap between them again. He shivered from the cold.

“Yeah, Simon. He’s… nice.”

“Good.”

“Right… I should go.”

She waited a beat, perhaps to give him time to stop her.

He didn’t.

He wanted to.

“Sorry for… whatever,” she said before leaving his room.

Once the door closed, Alec muttered a string of curses. She’d be gone soon and he would forget all about this. He might even find some excuse to leave town next time she came over.

He returned to his studies, but a shout soon interrupted him.

He found Hannah staring out the living room window. They could barely see the buildings across the street for the snow. Sleet hit the glass pane. Wind whistled menacingly. Everything was white.

He turned on the television to BBC News.

“The blizzard that's heading north is likely to drop even more snow than forecasters originally projected,” said the newscaster,” and the National Weather Service is urging residents to stay off the roads.”

The newscaster went on talking about Polar Vortex, high pressure systems and other meteorology gibberish to make it sound scientific. Meanwhile, Hannah phoned the train station.

“Tomorrow?! But… all right, yeah, I understand. Thanks.”

“No trains?”

“Nope. I’d better call my boss I won’t be in tonight.”

Alec sat on the couch while Hannah paced the length of the living room, back and forth, between him and the television. She made arrangements with her boss, reassured her mom, and sympathized with Simon who was stuck in Dundee. It dawned on him she would be spending the night here. In his flat. Without her boyfriend. She hung up, and their eyes met.

The lights flickered.

The power went out.

“Bloody hell.”

At least, it gave him a distraction. He checked the electrical panel for blown fuses, then went downstairs to ask the neighbor if he’d lost power too: the whole building was out. Then there were candles and torchlights to find. It was still light out, but days were short at this time of year, and the sun would set soon.

And here they stood, in the candlelit living room with the wind whistling outside and palpable awkwardness between them.

“So…”

“Yeah…”

“I’ll just…”

“It’s not serious, you know, between me and Simon.”

“I need a beer.”

Alec turned on his heels, leaving Hannah behind. He gulped down half the bottle before returning to her. She stood in the same spot, ankles crossed, clutching her vest top.

“Does he know that? Simon, does he know it’s not serious?”

“Yeah, we live in different cities and that’s not gonna change. He’s just, I don’t know, a fun bloke. He knows.”

“He’s family.”

“I know.”

So that hadn’t helped the awkwardness in any way. Why was she even telling him this? He had no time to waste on this kind of game, he couldn’t let her distract him from his exams.

“I’ll be in my room. Studying.”

“On your own?”

“Aye.”

 

He managed to focus on his work, only bothered by the overly sweet smell of the strawberry-scented candle and the room growing colder. He put on a second pair of socks and a jumper over his t-shirt and Henley.

After a while, he did start worrying about Hannah. He held his breath and listened for any signs of life outside his door. Nothing.

“Hannah?” he shouted through the door.

“What do you want?”

Okay, alive and slightly pissed. He came out of his room, she was reading on the couch, wrapped in a tartan blanket.

“You all right?”

“Yep.”

“You hungry?”

“No.”

“… Is it still snowing?”

“Look out the window yourself,” she replied, never looking up from her book.

He realized belatedly how rude he’d been, walking out on her when she was trying to tell him... something. She probably thought he didn’t like her now.

He tried a different strategy and stalked to the kitchen. He perused the fridge for food that might go bad if the power outage continued. He made sandwiches with leftover chicken. He carried two plates to the living room and put them on the coffee table along with a ton of yogurt cups and a jug of milk. He sat on the floor across from her. Hannah eyed the food warily.

“D’you have Kahlua or Tia Maria? For the milk,” she explained.

“I don’t think so.”

“Vodka, then? We could make white Russians.”

“Just drink the milk.”

Hannah sighed and took one of the sandwiches. She didn’t really eat, but picked the bread apart into little crumbs that she pushed around the plate. She didn’t say anything, and in that moment he would have done anything for one of her bad jokes, even at his expense.

“I’m not fun,” Alec blurted out.

She looked at him askance.

“You said Simon was fun. I’m not like him.”

“I know.” She put her plate down and shifted on the couch. “I like that about him, but… it’s also why it’s not more serious between us.”

The way she looked at him made him think there was more to her words. He didn’t know what. Hell, he didn’t even know the real meaning of his own words or why he’d wanted to tell her that. But he knew that she was smiling again, and that she slid off the couch to sit on the floor, closer to him, and he knew that he felt like some sort of balance had been restored. They each took a cup of yogurt and tapped them like they would glasses of wine.

“I wouldn’t say you’re not fun. But I really don’t know you that much yet.”

 _Yet_. One little word so full of promises.

“I stole a cow once,” he said.

Hannah burst out laughing. Granted it was the only time in his life he’d ever done something like that, and he recounted the anecdote like one might write an autopsy report, but it gave them something to talk about. They swapped stories of their teenage years and families. They’d chatted before, of course, but never like this, with hours ahead of them, no distractions and the glow of candles. And he thought how amazing it is to discover an entirely new person, to delve into their past and find out they’re not as simple as you once thought. People travel hundreds of miles for that rush.

The storm had subsided, but the power was still out. Both their teeth chattered and they wore gloves, but no amount of socks could keep their feet warm. Hannah began to worry, and they decided to check with the next door neighbour who had one of those police radio scanner. He’d heard the emergency teams were hard at work already to fix the power outage. Reassured, Alec and Hannah returned to his flat. Moving might help with the cold, so they cleared the table, brushed their teeth, searched for a deck of cards and gathered more blankets.

She bit her thumbnail as she watched him arrange the blankets on the couch.

“Maybe…” she trailed off. “Maybe it would help it we were both under the covers.”

“This isn’t all for me. I got some for you too… Oh.”

“Yeah, now you’re getting it.”

“Erm, yeah, yeah, all right. Good idea. For warmth.”

“Yeah, for warmth.”

They sat side by side and wrapped the covers around themselves, tucking them tightly under their legs and bums, and pulling them all the way up to their noses. The proximity made him tense. If only they had a movie to watch. Instead there was silence and the acute awareness of her still shivering body. Alec attempted to casually sneak an arm around her waist, her smile told him it was okay.

“Warmer?” he asked.

“Not yet.”

He squeaked when she pressed her cold nose to his throat. She chuckled but didn’t move away so he tightened his arms around her— way pass casual now as he nuzzled her hair. _For warmth._ Physical warmth and emotional warmth. It seeped into his veins and thawed his self-imposed barriers.

“I don’t have five breakups,” he said.

“Oh.”

“That’s why I couldn’t… earlier. It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you.”

“Okay, it can be a top three.”

He shook his head.

“Top two?” she tried.

He shook his head again.

“Really?”

“Don’t say it like that.”

“I’m not saying it like anything!”

“Forget it.”

“Oh, don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

If it hadn’t been so much work to disentangle himself from all the blankets, he might have left. He felt out of the norm enough as it was. There had been other girls, but never anything serious.

After some hesitation, he told her about Sarah. His friend, then best friend, then girlfriend through secondary school and A-levels. They had plans— big plans— and dreams to move away and live together. They’d enrolled at the same university and found a flat.

“A year later, I had to quit school and come back home. She didn’t understand, not really. We’d spent so much time talking about getting away and I was going back. We tried the long distance thing, but it didn’t work out, so.”

He was fine now. People change, he’d accepted that.

“This morning, you were about to say something about your mum.”

“Yeah… She got sick. Really sick. I couldn’t leave my little sister alone to take care of her. That’s why I quit college.”

“What about your dad?”

“I had to help him too. Had to work. Pay the bills… there’s this rule that you can’t get into the police if you have too much debt, makes you more vulnerable to corruption. So, that delayed the training too.”

Hannah nodded with a sympathetic smile.  He was done talking. He held her closer, resting his chin atop her head.

“Why are you telling me all this?” she asked.

“Why did you tell me about all your breakups?”

She shrugged.

“I want you to know,” he said.

“To know you?”

“To know what you’re— what you might be getting into.”

There was something, here, between them, changing and growing. Hannah kissed his cheek and burrowed further into his arms. He’d never been so thankful for a snow storm. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so at peace and comfortable with someone. It seemed so natural to hold her like this. It rekindled forgotten feelings in him, akin to wood burning in a fireplace, cozy and familiar. Everything was falling into place.

He closed his eyes and rested his cheek atop her head, imagining more nights like this one, snuggled on the couch. Maybe some kissing. Maybe more. Later, not behind Simon’s back.

Alec’s eyelids grew heavy, and he felt himself drifting off to sleep.

 

The lights came back on as well as the television, startling Alec out of sleep. It was already 1am. The smell of burning dust from the electric baseboards rose in the air. He didn’t want to wake Hannah up, but she stirred and cracked open an eye. Specks of mascara dotted her cheeks.

“Hello.”

She smiled at him, a lazy kind of smile that made him hug her tight. He allowed himself to kiss her forehead.

He had half a mind to suggest they spend the night on the couch, but Hannah had to use the loo. She extracted herself from the blanket cocoon.

Alec busied himself by blowing out the candles and folding the blankets. He didn’t want to go to his room just yet. When she came back in the living room, he was shuffling on his feet awkwardly. He wished his pyjama bottoms had pockets to put his hands in. She seemed as nervous as him, biting her thumbnail, legs crossed at the ankle.

“The power might go out again,” he blurted out. “Maybe we should…” He indicated his bedroom with a head tilt.

“For warmth?” A hint of a smile appeared on her lips.

“Aye. For warmth. In case it goes out again, and we don’t realize. We’ll freeze.”

“We wouldn’t want that to happen.”

They laughed, but it was short-lived.

“It would be nice,” she said, “but there’s Simon.”

“I know.”

“I’ll call him in the morning.”

They exchanged good nights and a too-long hug before each heading to a different bedroom.

 

Alec woke up early, groggy and still tired. Thoughts of Hannah and crime scene management theory had mingled in one bad dream. His exam was only at 10 o’clock, but he wanted to review his notes one last time. Hannah was still asleep. He scribbled about ten different messages to leave for her and threw out each one. There was just no way to pour out his heart to her on a Post-it. In the end, he settled for: “At school till noon. I want to talk to you.”

Thankfully, he lived near the campus, so the amount of snow in the streets didn’t make him late. He settled in his favourite corner of the library to reread his notes. He almost succeeded to put Hannah out of his thoughts completely. Every once in awhile, a concept would remind him of their study session the previous morning. It proved distracting during the exam. He even laughed when he remembered a silly acronym she’d created to help him memorize the chain of command. A few students glanced his way, and Alec shook his head to clear his thoughts. He was the last one to hand in his copy, a fact that didn’t go unnoticed by his professor, but he waved off his concern.

On the way out, Alec checked his phone: Hannah hadn’t called. She’d said she would talk to Simon, but he wasn’t sure what that meant anymore.

Luckily, he wouldn’t have to wait long to find out. As he crossed the student lounge, he heard someone call his name. Hannah stood at the other end of the area, he all but ran to her, zigzagging between tables and seats, cursing at a few students in his way. He halted right in front of her, heart beating fast, out of stress more than exertion.

Hannah handed him one of the two teas she was holding and asked after his exam. He didn’t care much about the chit chat, but she seemed to need it. They sat down on one of the bench and she became serious. She kept fiddling with the plastic lid of her cup, and she put it away resolutely. Hardy prepared for the worse.

“I talked to Simon,” she said at last, he barely heard over the chatter of students.

“What did he say?”

“He said: ‘about time’. I guess he figured it out before me.”

She chuckled, but it sounded nervous.

“You alright?”

She nodded, but wrapped her arms around her midriff and averted her eyes.

“Look, that doesn’t mean you have to do anything,” Hannah said. “But it wasn’t right. I couldn’t keep on dating him just because I got to see you when I came here.”

Alec couldn’t think of anything to say, stunned by this turn of events. She would come all the way here, not for Simon, but to see him? Yesterday morning he would barely allow himself to dream about being with her and now… now what? They’d cuddled, but she’d just broken up with someone, and he was leaving in three months. Nothing but doubts filled his mind. Yet amid all these doubts, one thing remained, one crucial thing: he liked Hannah. _So much_.  

He’d never been good at expressing his feelings. Instead, he took her hand and held it between his palms. They smiled at each other, giddy, beaming smiles. Utterly ridiculous and unapologetically so.

Hannah yawned. “Sorry.”

“Didn’t get much sleep either?”

“I kept thinking about what I would tell Simon. I might need a kip. Mind if I borrow your couch?”

She worried her bottom lip, so he quickly assuaged her doubts with an enthusiastic shake of his head.

“But, erm, the power might go out again,” he answered, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

“Oh, you’re right. Guess you’ll have to rest with me.”

“For warmth.”

“Not just for warmth.”


End file.
